The beauty of globalization is that it can free people from the tyranny of geography. Just because someone was born in France does not mean they can only aspire to speak French, eat French food, read French books, and so on. That we are increasingly free to choose our cultural experiences enriches our lives immeasurably. We could not always enjoy the best the world has to offer.
Globalization liberates people.
Fears about an Americanized uniformity are overblown. For a start, many “American” products are not as all-American as they seem; MTV in Asia promotes Thai pop stars and plays rock music sung in Mandarin. Nor are American products all-conquering. Coke accounts for less than two of the 64 fluid ounces that the typical person drinks a day. France imported a mere $620 million in food from the United States in 2000, while exporting to America three times that. Worldwide, pizzas are more popular than burgers and Chinese restaurants sprout up everywhere.
People always fear about the American culture, which the author does not agree. The American products are different when they are presented in other countries. The food from America is not so popular as the ones from Italy and China.
In some ways, America is an outlier, not a global leader. Baseball and American football have not travelled well; most prefer soccer. Most of the world has adopted the (French) metric system; America persists with antiquated British Imperial measurements. Most developed countries have become intensely secular, but many Americans burn with fundamentalist fervor – like Muslims in the Middle East.
Instead of the global leader, America is more like an spectator who cannot join the whole world. Many things, which are American people’s favorite, are not the world “pop star”.
Cross border cultural exchange increases diversity within societies – but at the expense of making them more alike. People everywhere have more choice, but they often choose similar things. That worries cultural pessimists, even though the right to choose to be the same is an essential part of freedom.
Culture exchange, which expands people's choices at the cost of the increasing similarity, is part of freedom for people right to choose, the part the pessimists worried about.
Fears about an Americanized uniformity are overblown. For a start, many “American” products are not as all-American as they seem; MTV in Asia promotes Thai pop stars and plays rock music sung in Mandarin. Nor are American products all-conquering. Coke accounts for less than two of the 64 fluid ounces that the typical person drinks a day. France imported a mere $620 million in food from the United States in 2000, while exporting to America three times that. Worldwide, pizzas are more popular than burgers and Chinese restaurants sprout up everywhere.
In some ways, America is an outlier, not a global leader. Baseball and American football have not travelled well; most prefer soccer. Most of the world has adopted the (French) metric system; America persists with antiquated British Imperial measurements. Most developed countries have become intensely secular, but many Americans burn with fundamentalist fervor – like Muslims in the Middle East.
Cross border cultural exchange increases diversity within societies – but at the expense of making them more alike. People everywhere have more choice, but they often choose similar things. That worries cultural pessimists, even though the right to choose to be the same is an essential part of freedom.